The Schools for Health in Europe Network Foundation (SHE) focuses on making school health promotion an integral part of policy development in the health and education sector in EU member states and in the European Region. SHE encourages each member country to develop and implement a national policy on school health promotion, building on the experiences within the country, within Europe and globally.

SHAPE UP: Towards a European school network to impact the determinants of child obesity at the community level

Shape Up is an European health education project at the community level developed between 2006 and 2008, by the European Public Helath Programme. It has been effective in developing school-community collaboration and creating youth ownership and innovative learning to influence the determinants of child obesity. It has demonstrated positive effects on local democracy and facilitated local stakeholders to act effectively and achieve long-term changes, has reinforced active learning and innovative curriculum plans and stimulated cross-cultural collaboration.

The main aim of the PoHeFa project, which was supported by the European Public Health Programme (2009-2012), was to increase the awareness of local policy makers and professional practitioners of how the socio-cultural context within the local settings effects healthy lifestyle choices and the health status of families and to assist local authorities to develop better strategies and more effective interventions through more competent professional practitioners with respect to health promoting activities on obesity and healthy lifestyle choices, focusing especially on young people and their families.

The IMPALA project, which was supported by the European Public Health Programme (2009-2012) and aimed to identify, implement, and disseminate good practice in the planning, financing, building, and managing of local infrastructures for leisure-time physical activity. To gather the information needed, IMPALA seeked to analyze national policies, mechanisms and instruments used in the development of infrastructures for leisure-time physical activity.

Development and implementation of a national policy for promoting healthy eating and physical activity for schools in Europe (HEPS schoolkit).

Healthy Regions – When well-being creates economic growth

The Healthy Regions project was an “action research” project, and was therefore highly process oriented and pragmatic in its approach, supported by the European Public Helath Programme (2007-2010).

The Healthy Children Concept has been developed within a European development project, supported by the European Public Health Programme (2010-2013). The overall philosophy of the concept is to create strategic partnerships between local health promoting authorities, civil society organisations and volunteers, and to train the volunteers to act as “health ambassadors” working with children and young people in deprived areas.

Gradient (2009-2012) was a collaborative research project involving 12 institutions (universities, research institutes and public health institutes) from all over Europe.

The evaluation process must be in line with the principles of the health-promoting school. This tool shows how this can differ from the approach used to evaluate public health initiatives. Methods to use to collect evaluation data is suggested.

The active involvement of parents and community is essential to the health promoting school. This tool gives examples of how to involve different target groups.